Migrants and the Texas National Guard play a veritable game of cat and mouse, day and night, along the border wall in Ciudad Juarez, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, just on the other side from the city of El Paso, Texas. Their "playground" is a vast expanse of sand where rolls of barbed wire are piled several meters high, just beyond a dirty, muddy creek known as Rio Bravo in Mexico and Rio Grande in the USA, and which marks the official border between the two countries. Since the beginning of September, this border has once again seen an uninterrupted influx of migrants from the south, from all over the American continent and Venezuela in particular. Since 2013, seven million Venezuelans have fled their country and its bankrupt economy.

In small groups, migrants approach the barbed wire, covering it with clothes and digging a hole in the sand at full speed to try to squeeze through without injuring themselves too much. Children are passed from arm to arm, wrapped in blankets, backpacks are thrown in the air; some remain caught and abandoned in the barbed wire. These families often only have a few minutes before the American guards come running and put their feet up on the barbed wire to prevent passage. But 50 meters further on, another group slips through, while other guards rush in their direction.

The game goes on all day, and despite the best efforts of the security forces, who travel by car or run, groups of migrants make it onto American soil, their arms often bloodied from crossing the fence, but unable to suppress a smile.

'I really want to leave Mexico'

On the Mexican side, the mere sight of fellow migrants passing under this seemingly impassable line is a cause for joy and hope for those who have just arrived. They spend several hours studying the process before taking their turn. "Actually, we have to go through like crabs," laughed Venezuelan Eduardo Vasquez, who raised his fist when he saw that the group – with whom he had been traveling on the roof of a train from Mexico State the past few days – had just crossed the barbed wire.

The 26-year-old, who took two months to cross into Mexico, was still reluctant to cross the border illegally while traveling with two children aged two and four. "When I see that my companions have crossed, I feel like taking the plunge too," said this former bus driver from Caracas. At his side, his wife once again turns on her phone and opens the CBP One (Customs and Border Protection) mobile application, which enables people to apply for asylum in the United States. Two months after they registered, they still have had no response. "It's the only way to enter the United States legally, but what if we don't get an appointment? I really want to leave Mexico," added Vasquez who, like the vast majority of migrants, has no papers to stay legally in Ciudad Juarez.

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